Penicillin and Insulin – both derailed by animal experimentation

Two of the most common false claims from the PR organisation for animal experimentation – ‘Understanding Animal Research’ (UAR) – are that penicillin and insulin would never have been discovered without the use of animal models – specifically dogs regarding the insulin claim. Both these claims are untrue and could be proved as such if UAR would agree to our called for medical debate hearing.

The following documents give a referenced history of the discovery of penicillin and insulin, and demonstrate that a) animal experimentation actually delayed the use of penicillin for humans for over a decade, because it has no effect on rabbits and b) insulin was derailed for humans becuase experiments on dogs led scientists to believe it was a liver disease. Here’s the penicillin document and here’s insulin document.

We have been calling UAR into the medical debate arena for two years, supported by many MPs including Paul Flynn MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Diane Abbott MP, Sir Greg Knight MP, Gordon Henderson MP and Caroline Lucas MP. No scientist from UAR will agree to the MPs’ called for thorough medical debate hearing, which would be overseen by independent judges from the relevant fields of scientific expertise, qualified and capable of reaching a decision about such medical history.